The Founders of #BlackLivesMatter: "We Deserve a Multiracial Democracy That Works for All of Us"

The inimitable Shonda Rhimes set the scene at Monday's Glamour Women of the Year Awards: "We can wear a hoodie, we can be driving, we can be crossing the street, playing in a park...we can simply have the dignity to look somebody in the eye, and they can shoot us." She was referring to the epidemic of police violence against unarmed black people, as she introduced the women who "started the infrastructure for this movement...and they took the hashtag to the streets." Women of the Year award recipients Alicia Garza, Patrice Cullors and Opal Tometi, founders of the Black Lives Matter movement are "patriots," said Rhimes, women who have "fundamentally altered the course of civil rights in America."

As the women took the stage, a young girl from the audience shouted the slogan, "Black lives matter!," and was greeted with an ecstatic "yaas!" from the women on stage. Their message was serious, but hopeful.

Garza said that "Black Lives Matter is more needed today than ever before." It's a call to action. "What happened in our country on Tuesday is something that we can fix. This is not the time to sit back and wonder what we’re going to do, this is the time to build a movement in the millions," continued Garza, listing the #noDAPL movement and income inequality as related issues that also need our support and attention today.

Tometi continued, "What a time to be alive. And yet we are. We are not an accident of history. Each and every one of us was made for such a time as this. It is incumbent on every single one of us to stand up and defend our diverse communities," because in the end, she said, "We deserve a multiracial democracy that works for all of us."

Fiinally, Cullors took the mic to lead the crowd in a cheer the group has done from the White House to the British Parliament, a simple but powerful repetition of statements:

It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We
must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose
but our chains.

And then she added, "turn up, y'all."

Watch the moment from the show here:

BlackLivesMatter Founders Brought the Crowd to Their Feet at Women of The Year